The Leaky Cauldron
by Beeezie
Summary: Victoire has been trying to figure out how Teddy feels about her all summer, and she's starting to get desperate.
1. Diagon Alley

"Vic!"

Victoire started and nearly knocked over her empty glass. She gave her cousin a guilty smile. "Sorry, Fred. I guess I zoned out for a second."

"That wasn't just a second," he told her. "That was long enough for Lexy to come through on her way to Diagon Alley, stop to say hello, and leave."

She stared at him in disbelief. "It was not." Then, through the dim light, she saw the hint of a grin on his face. She smacked his arm with the back of her hand. "It was not!"

"No," he admitted. "It wasn't. I just wanted to see if you'd believe me." He rolled his eyes. _"And_ I wanted to get you back for zoning out on me again."

Victoire groaned and put her head in her hand. "Sorry," she said again. "I was just thinking."

Fred leaned back in his seat. "Let me guess," he said, taking a sip of his butterbeer. "You were thinking about Teddy." He paused dramatically. "Again."

She wrinkled her nose. "No." She looked up, and he raised his eyebrows at her. "All right, yes."

He shook his head. "Why won't you just say something to him? You know, you've been putting this off all summer, and now you only have about a week left."

"I know." She sighed. "I _know._ " The door to the Leaky Cauldron creaked, and Victoire spun around. The woman who had opened it gave her a startled look as she herded a boy and a girl who looked like they might be new first-years through to Diagon Alley.

"Were you worried that was Teddy, or are you disappointed that it wasn't?" Fred asked shrewdly.

Victoire's shoulders slumped. "Both," she admitted. "And I won't say something because he hasn't."

Fred gave a snort of laughter. "No," he said firmly. "No, V, you are not going down that path. And if you insist on it, tell me so I can leave."

"What path?" she asked, though she knew exactly what he meant.

"The one where you overanalyze," he told her. "I won't be part of it." He slammed his butterbeer down for emphasis. It slopped over the side and onto the table and his hand, and he made a face. "That... didn't work as well as I wanted it to."

She reached over to the next table to grab some napkins and tossed them to him. "It's my job to overanalyze," she said as he mopped up the spill. "I'm a Ravenclaw."

"And it's my job to stop you," he countered. "I'm a Gryffindor." He tossed the drenched napkins to the other side of the table and took another sip of butterbeer. This time, he put the mug down carefully. "Anyway, I think Teddy hasn't said anything because he feels like a creep."

Victoire stared at him. "Why?" she asked. "I'm of age."

"As of three months ago," Fred pointed out. "He's more than two years older than you." She opened her mouth to argue, but before she could say anything, he added, _"And_ you're still in school, where he's actually got a proper job and his own place and everything."

"Would you call running around trying to find treasure a proper job?" The door opened again, and she swiveled. This time it was only an old man, who went up to the bar and sat down on a stool. She looked back at Fred. "Sorry."

"Technically, all of these people _could_ be him." She gave the man at the bar another glance, and dismissed the thought. Indulging in that kind of paranoia was how you made yourself crazy. "Teddy's always had a complex about you, anyway," Fred said offhandedly. "I'm not surprised he hasn't said anything."

"What?" Victoire was sure she hadn't heard him correctly. If Teddy had "always" had a complex about her, she'd never noticed it.

Fred gave her a surprised look. "Didn't I ever tell you about the time he hauled off and punched Adam Kennet for making some comment about how you looked soaking wet?"

She goggled at him. "He didn't."

Fred nodded. "He definitely did. In the middle of the common room and everything. I saw it. Remember all those detentions he got?"

Now that she was thinking about it, she definitely remembered Teddy serving detentions in January of his seventh year, because he'd been complaining about coming back from the holidays and immediately being behind on his work. "He told me he'd been caught out-of-bounds," she said.

"Well, he lied, then." Fred looked around the nearly-deserted room. "You think they'd serve me firewhiskey? I'm practically seventeen."

Victoire didn't answer him. Something had just occurred to her. "How did Adam Kennet _know_ what I looked like soaking wet?"

Fred thought for a moment. "It must have been that time that we thought it would be in the holiday spirit to set off fireworks in the Great Hall," he said after a moment.

"Oh, of course!" Victoire clapped her hands together. That was definitely one of her favorite memories of their time at Hogwarts. "And then all those wreaths caught fire, and McGonagall soaked both of us trying to put them all out." In hindsight, perhaps setting off fireworks surrounded by holiday decorations had not been the best decision she and Fred had ever made, but it was certainly one of the most entertaining.

"Good times." Fred finished off his butterbeer. "Are you going to want another?" he asked, motioning to her empty glass.

She shook her head. "No, probably not." She pointed her wand at the glass, and it filled with water. "I'll just drink this and we'll go."

The door leading to Diagon Alley opened, but before she could turn, Fred shook his head. "It's not him, V. Calm down."

"Sorry." She studied the dingy pub. She had come through it on her way to Diagon Alley dozens of times, and had even stayed there with her family on several occasions. However, this was the first time she'd actually sat in it and had a drink. Given that she had only turned seventeen in May, this wasn't surprising, but finishing her first drink in the Leaky Cauldron felt like confirmation that she was actually, legally, an adult.

Granted, she was sitting in the pub with Fred, who wouldn't turn seventeen until September, but she wouldn't want to be sitting with anyone else for such a landmark moment.

Fred was clearly thinking along the same lines. "Hey, do you think James would let us borrow the cloak on my birthday? We could go to the shop and use floo powder to get here."

Victoire smiled. "I think that having access to that cloak has made you soft," she teased. "It used to be that we found a way into the village without fancy cloaks and maps."

"Yes, I really miss those bruises from the Whomping Willow," he said sarcastically. "They took ages to fade, and _some_ of us can't turn into— Ow!" He bent down and rubbed his shin where she had just kicked him. "Damnit, V, really?"

"Sorry," she said airily. "Didn't see your leg there."

He scowled at her, but just as he was about to open his mouth, she heard the door swung open again. Before she could turn, Fred glanced past her and gave a quick nod.

She tried to stop herself from panicking. What was it that made romance so much more intimidating than any monster Hagrid or Goldstein could manage to get a hold of?

It was a mark of their friendship that Fred put the growing bruise on his leg aside for long enough to lean across the table and say, "Calm down. What's the worst that can happen? If he rejects you, you can maul him in a dark alley and blame it on a wild animal." He gave her a reassuring pat on the arm.

Victoire felt a smile spread across her face despite her nervousness. That was so like Fred.

"What a surprise, finding you two here," Teddy said when he reached their table. He yanked another chair over and straddled it. "And here I was thinking that I could have a quiet drink by myself. Now they let all kinds of riffraff in here." He looked at the empty glass in front of her. "First drink in the Leaky Cauldron?"

She nodded. "You missed it."

He made a face. _"I_ wanted to buy you your first drink at the Leaky Cauldron. You couldn't have waited?"

"You said you _might_ be along, _if_ you could get off early," she reminded him. "What, were we just supposed to sit around for hours?"

Victoire did not believe in sitting around waiting for people to show up.

Teddy snorted. "Please," he scoffed. "You haven't been sitting here for _half_ an hour."

"Thirty-five minutes, actually." She glanced at the clock above the bar. "Wait, no, now it's thirty-six."

"Who buys you your first drink is important," he said stubbornly. "What does it say if you bought it for yourself?"

"That I'm self-reliant?" she suggested.

He considered that. "I suppose." He looked skeptical. "But how would you feel if Fred didn't let you buy his first drink?"

"Deeply hurt," Victoire said. "But that's different. Fred's like my brother." Not that they looked anything alike, but given that Fred's mother was black and that her mother was part-veela, that wasn't particularly surprising.

"I'm not like a brother to you?" Teddy asked playfully, leaning forward on the back of his chair.

She examined him. "No," she said slowly. "No, I don't think so." His expression was perfectly attentive and gave absolutely nothing away. It was absolutely maddening. She looked at Fred. "More of a bastard third cousin by marriage twice removed, wouldn't you say?"

Fred shook his head. "Nah. To me, he's like a _normal_ third cousin by marriage _once_ removed."

Teddy threw back his head and laughed. "Thanks."

"What, am I like a sister to you?" she threw back.

His composure slipped for a moment. It was only a moment, but she caught it, and from the grin that she could see spreading across Fred's face out of the corner of her eye, he had, too.

"No," Teddy said, heaving a great sigh. "Orphan that I am, I don't even try to find surrogate siblings. It makes me spiral into a deep depression where I muse about abandonment and despise noble causes and write bad poetry."

Victoire couldn't help but laugh, though she found Teddy's frequent deflections on questions that he didn't want to answer with jokes less funny now that she actually wanted to gauge how he actually felt about certain things.

Mostly her.

Teddy sighed. "I don't even have any cousins," he said mournfully. That was apparently too much for him to say and keep a straight face, because he gave a bark of laughter.

"Do you really not have _any?_ " Fred asked.

Teddy screwed up his face. "Well, technically, I think I have one second cousin. I don't _think_ he's started at Hogwarts yet, but I'm not sure."

"What's his name?" Victoire asked, though she thought she knew the answer.

She was not surprised when he gave her a sheepish grin. "I don't know. I only know I have a cousin at all because my grandmother got an announcement for his birth that she immediately threw in the bin." He shrugged. "She _really_ doesn't like to talk about her family, and I don't care very much. I have a family already."

Fred grinned. "Who bought you your first drink at the Leaky Cauldron, then?" he asked curiously.

Teddy laughed. "My godfather, of course. Who else?"

"Well, it could have been your grandmother," Fred pointed out.

The door opened again, and Victoire had to consciously stop herself from looking at it. Teddy gave her an odd look and shook his head. "Nah. Who goes out drinking with their grandmother?"

Victoire thought about that for a moment. It was true that she couldn't really imagine going out drinking with Grandma Molly. Wine at home, yes. Going to the Leaky Cauldron, no.

Grandma Apolline was a bit of a different story. When she had visited earlier in the summer, Victoire's mother had convinced Victoire to go and sit in a pub with them for a couple drinks. Maybe half-veela grandmothers were just different.

Theoretically, of course, one of Teddy's friends could have bought him his first drink at the Leaky Cauldron, but there was an unwritten rule that it really ought to be a family member who did it.

Fred pushed his chair back. "We should get going. We still have shopping to do for school."

"Not leaving it to the last moment, are you?" Teddy remarked as Victoire followed suit. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Teddy's head turn a little, but by the time she'd finished shaking her head back and forth to work out the slight stiffness in her neck, he was putting his chair back at its original table with such carelessness that she wondered if she'd imagined it.

As she and Fred followed Teddy to the door that led to Diagon Alley, Fred said quietly, "Did you catch the once-over?"

"Was it really?" she whispered back. "I thought I might have imagined it."

"You didn't. I wouldn't even call it a once-over. It was more like a twice-over."

"Maybe you imagined it because that's what you were expecting to see," she suggested as Teddy tapped the wall with his wand.

Fred snorted. "Not likely. I've given them to enough girls to recognize them." She elbowed him. "What?"

They followed Teddy into Diagon Alley.

Victoire felt enormously pleased with herself. She'd known that wearing the skirt had been a good idea.

Granted, if Teddy had been checking her out, he probably would have no matter what she was wearing, especially since if he really had punched someone for commenting on her appearance (albeit in what she'd gathered was a rather explicit way), any interest he was feeling probably far from new.

It didn't matter. She knew she looked her best. That was important. Recently, in all of her encounters with Teddy, irrelevant details that she knew probably didn't matter had begun to take on irrational amounts of importance.

Teddy looked back. "What are you two talking about?"

"Fred's debating getting a new broom," Victoire said. Technically, that was not a lie. Fred had been debating about getting a new broom since early July. That it was not the answer to the question Teddy had asked was not something that she saw as information it was essential to share with him.

"I think I've decided to wait, though," Fred said as Teddy opened his mouth. "My broom isn't that old."

As they walked by _Quality Quidditch Supplies_ , Fred stopped to stare longingly at the broom in the window. Victoire grabbed his arm and kept walking, and after a moment, he was forced to follow her.

"It's for your own good," she told him when he started to complain. "You _told_ me not to let you stop and look at brooms, because you'd just end up buying one."

Fred wrinkled his nose. "Stop listening to me," he told her. "Hey, where's Teddy?"

Victoire looked around. Teddy was standing in front of the shop staring longingly into the window. She sighed and retraced her steps. "I thought you were here with us," she said, stopping next to him and crossing her arms.

He sighed. "I am," he said. "But look at it."

Victoire looked. "It's a broom," she said flatly. "It looks like a broom."

She liked Quidditch. Quidditch was a lot of fun to watch. It could even be fun to play. However, she could never understand the obsession some people had with every new broom that came out. There never seemed to be any huge differences between them.

He shook his head emphatically. "No, no, see, this is the _Derecho._ It just came out a few weeks ago. It's especially good against bludgers because—"

"Teddy." He stopped talking and stared at her intently. "We are here today. You can come ogle this broom when we are not here, which is almost every day."

He sighed. "All right." As he followed her back to Fred, he said, "You know, V, you can be a real— Careful!"

She had stumbled after catching her heel in a crack. As she was trying to regain her balance, she felt his hand grab her upper arm to steady her.

In that moment, Victoire had two very different but equally inane trains of thought.

First, she cursed her decision to wear heels. The simple act of stumbling had taken on monumental importance. She was dimly aware that this was ridiculous; no relationship was ever made or broken by someone losing their balance. At the same time, she had chosen the heels in the first place because they made her legs look longer, and it wasn't as though longer legs were likely to spark any interest on Teddy's part that wasn't already there, so being hard on herself for being ridiculous now didn't make much sense.

Second, she was not sure whether to look at him or not look him. She should probably look at him and thank him. Then again, maybe looking at him would give her away. She didn't want that.

At least, she was fairly sure that she didn't want that.

Why was romance so complicated?

"Thank you," she said, making sure her feet were planted very firmly on the ground before looking up at him. Her friend Juliet would almost certainly have recommended stumbling again on purpose, but Juliet had a bit of a damsel-in-distress complex that Victoire was exceedingly glad she did not share.

"You're welcome." He let go of her quickly.

"Nice one, Vic!" Fred said from a few feet away. She stuck her tongue out at him, and he snickered.

"What were you saying?" Victoire asked Teddy innocently. He gave an uncomprehending shake of his head. "About me. You said that I could be a real… what?"

"I don't even remember," he said. "But I didn't mean it, anyway."

"I know you didn't." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave what she hoped was a dazzling smile. "How could you? I'm perfect."

He seemed appropriately dazzled, despite Fred's retching. She strode ahead of him, and when she reached Fred, he turned to walk with her. "You? Perfect?" he said loudly in a tone of absolute astonishment. "In what sense of the word?" He lowered his voice slightly. "Seriously. You're not perfect. You're too obnoxious."

"Love you too," she said dryly.

"Although he totally was just checking you out," Fred whispered before Teddy caught up to them.

"It's okay, V. I think you're perfect." He gave her an easy grin. She waited for the punchline, but it didn't come.

Victoire felt herself freeze. How was she supposed to respond to that?

"Oh, let's get our book-shopping done now," Fred suggested as they neared Flourish and Blotts, sparing her from having to figure out how to answer it. As she followed him into the bookstore, she thought she saw Teddy throwing Fred a slightly dirty look.

"What do you still need?" she asked her cousin.

He pulled a crumpled list out of his pocket. "Ah… _Standard Book of Spells Grade Six, Advanced Potion Making, Confronting the Faceless_ , and _Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland."_

Teddy snorted. "Hagrid's toned it down a bit. When I started 6th year, I had to buy a book about dragon _breeding."_ He looked at Victoire. "What do you need?"

 _"The Standard Book of Spells Grade Seven, The Dark Arts Outsmarted, A Study of Magic's Darkest Creatures,_ and _Dreadful Denizens of the Deep."_ She considered the list for a moment. "I hadn't realized how obvious that made my priorities look," she said after a moment.

Fred began to scan the shelves. "Yeah, you like your dark arts and monsters, all right." He pulled two books out and tossed one to her. When she caught it, he made a face. "You really would have made a good Chaser."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop whining," she said as they made their way to the aisle containing books about magical creatures. "You do that every time I catch anything. I'd be on a different team, anyway."

He shrugged in acknowledgement. "But still. And Gryffindor can take the competition."

"You got made captain, right?" Teddy asked as he knelt down to search the bottom shelf.

Fred nodded. "I'm going to make the team great again."

"I believe in you," Teddy said sincerely. He grabbed a book and stood up, and Victoire caught a glimpse of a shipwreck on the cover. She held out her hand, and he shook his head. "It's fine. I can manage to carry one book." She rolled her eyes and turned back to the shelf she'd been looking at.

"I don't think we'll win this year, though," Fred admitted. "I still need another Chaser, and I'm not sure how our new Beaters will work out."

Victoire smothered a smile as Teddy asked, "Oh, you held tryouts at the end of the year?"

"Just for Beaters. Technically Aileen held them. We were pretty sure it was going to be me made captain, but it could have been Amber," Fred explained, referencing last year's captain, Aileen Frazer, and the current Seeker, Amber Stimpson.

Teddy waited for a moment, but when Fred didn't continue, he asked, "So who are your new Beaters?"

"Really?" Fred asked in surprise. Victoire was a little surprised as well. "You don't know?"

Teddy looked confused. "Fred, how on earth am I supposed to know? I've barely seen you this summer, and we never talked about the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

Victoire pulled _Dragon Species_ off the shelf and handed it to Fred. "I guess they took your order to keep their mouths shut very seriously."

She could see Teddy putting the pieces together in his head. If Fred had expected the new Beater to tell Teddy about it, that could only mean... "Are you _joking?"_ Fred shook his head. "You're giving _James_ a Beater's bat?"

"And Roxanne," Victoire said as they made their way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts section of the store. "I watched the tryouts. They really were the best."

Teddy yanked _A Study of Magic's Darkest Creatures_ off the shelf. "James on a broom with a bat," he said, shaking his head. "Though I guess it's not so surprising. They're both good at flying. Wouldn't surprise me if they went on to play professionally." Victoire laughed before she could help herself, and he glanced at her. "You don't think they're good enough?"

She shook her head. "No, it's not that. Maybe Roxanne will. But I know James. He's needs more excitement than that."

"More excitement than being a Beater?" Fred asked skeptically as he grabbed a copy of _Advanced Potion Making_ off a table.

"Much," Victoire said decisively. "Just watch. He'll join the Aurors, or the Dragon Bureau." She grinned. "Maybe if I'm very, very lucky, he'll follow me to the D.C.B."

As she was about the follow Fred down the aisle to get her last book, Teddy stopped her. "I've got it," he said, holding it up.

She frowned. "When did you get that?" she asked.

He jerked his head at a table next to them. A pile of _The Dark Arts Outsmarted_ was sitting on it.

"Oh."

He leaned on the bookshelf and cocked his head to the side. "So you're still planning on joining that new bureau at the Ministry?"

"It's not new. It's fifteen-years old. It's just small. But yes." She hoped that he wasn't going to start mocking it; a lot of people in her year saw the Dangerous Creatures Bureau as unnecessary and pointless, and she was tired of defending it. If Teddy started making fun of it, she was going to have to think the better of him.

Thankfully, he didn't. "My friend Val just finished her first year there, you know," he said. "And Sienna—did you know Sienna, she was in the year before mine?" Victoire nodded. She hadn't known the girl well, but she certainly knew her by sight, at least. "She's been there for the last two years. They both love it. Val was really excited when I told her I thought you were planning to join next year."

"So you're not going to try and talk me out of it?" Sometimes it seemed like that was all anyone ever did. If she heard someone tell her one more time that she was too smart to waste her life on the D.C.B., she was going to hex them.

Teddy shrugged. "From what Val says, they're understaffed in a big way, and dark animals are becoming a huge problem." Victoire felt an anticipatory shiver run up her spine, and wondered if it made her a bad Ravenclaw to enjoy the adrenaline rush it was giving her. "You'll do great."

She smiled, genuinely touched—and not just because part of her was wishing he would just kiss her. "Thanks."

"No problem." He reached out to brush a lock of hair back from her face. "Just don't get yourself killed. I'd miss you."

Victoire felt her face get warm. She was starting to think that Fred was right, and she was worrying about Teddy's feelings unnecessarily. "I'll do my best."

"Then I'm sure you won't die," he said confidently.

She looked toward the front of the store. Fred was already up there with his books. "I should go pay," she said.

"Probably." Teddy followed her as she started to walk to the till. "Hey, V."

"Hmm?" Victoire stopped and looked back.

His face looked uncharacteristically flushed. "Would you be interested in maybe meeting me back here after work one day?" he asked. "I'm still in the country for the next week. And…" He shifted from one foot to the other. "I still need to buy you a drink at the Leaky Cauldron and all."

"I'd like that."

He visibly relaxed. "You would?"

She smiled. "Yes. I definitely would."


	2. Leaky Cauldron

Victoire held a red and green plaid skirt up and examined herself in the mirror. "Decorating a Christmas tree?" the mirror asked nastily.

She sighed and tossed it to join the trousers and shirts that already lay on her bed. "Shut up." She bent down to pick up the skirt that had slipped off the large pile on her chair and onto the floor, and a knock sounded at the door. She jumped in surprise and fell into the chair. The clothing cascaded to the floor. "Nice," she muttered to herself. "Come in!"

The door opened, and Victoire looked up. Her sister was standing in the doorway and surveying the scene with a look of utter bemusement. "V, what on _earth_ are you doing? Tell me you're not packing to go back to school already, we've still got a week left!"

"What?" Victoire paused in the act of throwing several shirts onto the chair and looked around, realizing for the first time exactly how many clothes were strewn about the room. "Oh. No, of course I'm not."

Dominique closed the door behind her and perched on the edge of Victoire's bed. "Then what _are_ you doing?"

Victoire considered this. A couple years ago, she would have made a joke or hedged if Dominique had asked her that, but now her sister was only a few months away from turning fifteen and significantly less likely to view dating as ridiculous. "I think I have a date tomorrow night," she admitted.

Dominique's face lit up with interest. "With _who?"_ she asked.

Victoire picked a skirt up off the pile on the chair, decided that it was too long for a first date, and tossed it to the growing pile on her bed. Dominique ducked, allowing it to soar over her head. "Teddy."

Dominique's jaw dropped. "Teddy _Lupin?"_

"Do we know another Teddy?" Victoire asked testily.

Dominique shook her head. "Wow," was all she could muster up. Victoire was about to congratulate herself on shutting her sister up, which had become very difficult to do, when Dominique recovered from her surprise and began to talk again. "Since when do you like him?"

Victoire had been asking herself that same question quite a lot lately. She certainly hadn't _always_ liked him—after all, she'd known him when they were children. She hadn't even liked him since she'd started to become interested in boys in her fourth year. No, this was fairly recent.

She thought it was, anyway.

The trouble was, there hadn't been one moment where she'd transitioned from having completely platonic feelings toward him to being interested in him—or if there had been a moment, she hadn't noticed it. It seemed like in stories, there was always an identifiable moment where a person became attracted to someone else, but that hadn't been her experience at all.

She was glad for that. The instant attraction had always felt rather cheap to her.

"I'm not sure," she admitted.

Dominique considered that. "I suppose that makes sense," she said. "I like Teddy. He's not a bad choice, for a boy."

Victoire hid a smile. Her sister had never really understood the appeal of boys. "I agree."

"Does he like you?" Dominique pressed.

Victoire shrugged. "I guess we'll see, but given that he asked me out, it seems likely."

Dominique crossed her arms. "He'd better. He'll never find anyone half as good as you are."

"Thanks, Domi."

Her sister proceeded to ruin the feel-good sisterly moment by making a face at the skirt Victoire was holding up and saying, "Oh, no, V, you can't wear that."

Victoire looked back at her reflection. The mirror was quiet, which was saying something, and she rather liked this shade of blue. "Why not?"

Dominique was regarding the skirt as though it might bite. "It looks like the bastard stepsister of Manchester City's new home jersey."

Victoire did not think she would ever understand her sister's obsession with football. "Why does that matter?"

"Because Manchester City are the spawn of Satan."

Victoire was curious about what made Manchester City the spawn of Satan, but not curious enough to subject herself to the long explanation she knew her sister would give. "So what do you recommend I wear?" she asked in exasperation.

Dominique considered that. "Just wear your red skirt," she suggested.

"So what did you want in the first place?" Victoire asked, surveying the clothes scattered all over her room with some disgust and dreading the task of having to clean it up.

"Wellllll…" Dominique drew out the word. "Hannah and I really, _really_ want to go see the Arsenal game tonight, and we have three tickets, and Mum _said_ she'd take us only something's come up at work, and they won't let us go alone, and I was wondering…" She gave Victoire a very hopeful look.

Victoire sighed. Of course it would be football. Dominique had been obsessed with the sport since her friend Hannah's father, who was a muggleborn, had taken them to a game for Hannah's sixth birthday. "You were wondering if I'd take you." Dominique's face fell a little at the tone of her voice, and Victoire suddenly felt the onslaught of guilt that only her siblings could seem to evoke. "All right, Domi. I'll take you."

Dominique's face lit up and she launched herself off the bed. "Thank you!" she squealed, throwing her arms around Victoire. "You're the best sister _ever."_

"Until the next time you get annoyed at me, you mean."

Dominique shook her head violently. "I will never be annoyed with you ever again," she promised.

Victoire somehow doubted this.

When she got to the Leaky Cauldron the next evening, Teddy was already sitting at a table in a corner with a drink in front of him. He appeared to have tired of the blond hair he'd been sporting all summer, because tonight it was a bright blue. She was not entirely sure, but she thought his eyes widened a little when he saw her.

"You look great," he said when she slipped into the seat across from him.

She felt her face get red and looked down at her dress. "Thanks." She hesitated. This was so ludicrous. She'd spent so much time with Teddy before. Why was she getting tongue-tied now? "How are you?"

"How are you?" he asked at the same time. They laughed, and he gestured to her.

"I'm fine." Now that she was closer to him, she could see that his sudden taste for blue had extended to his eyes as well – they were a bright blue that looked strange and unnatural. It wasn't her favorite of his many experiments, but she was glad that at least he'd grown out of changing his nose. It had made him very difficult to recognize. "Guess what I did last night?"

"Solved the riddle of the sphinx." Teddy was incapable of not giving some answer to questions that were posed to him, even though his answers to those questions were frequently ridiculous.

"Took Dominique and Hannah Randall to a football game."

He stared at her. "Are you serious?"

She nodded. "During half-time, they started scheming about starting a football tournament at school this year."

Teddy snorted. "Of course they were. What's a half-time?"

Victoire missed the days when she had been too ignorant about football to answer that question. "Football games have a short break in the middle."

He tried to wrap his mind around that for a minute before giving up. "Weird. So how did you get roped into that?"

"Domi came in and begged me yesterday afternoon while I was—" she stopped herself. She was not keen to admit how much time she'd spent thinking about her outfit, but nothing came to mind. His eyebrows rose a little. "—reading," she finished lamely.

"Really?" he asked pleasantly, meeting her gaze. "Reading?"

Victoire looked away. She spied several of her friends sitting on the other side of the room – she could just make out Micah's blond curls over the back of the booth, and she recognized Lexy's Ballycastle Bats jacket hanging off the empty chair.

"Do you want us to go and join your friends?" She started and looked back at Teddy. His face was perfectly blank. She hated it when he did that. "I don't mind."

Victoire did not know if he was testing her or if he really didn't mind. "No," she said, hoping that the smile she was giving him made her look at-ease rather than like a bundle of nerves. "I'm here with you."

Whether or not he had been testing her – and she suspected that he hadn't been, because that wasn't really Teddy's style – her answer seemed to please him, because his mouth turned up a little at the corners as he stared into his drink.

"Any reason you're suddenly obsessed with blue?" she asked, as much to break the silence as anything.

He shrugged. "I felt like a change." He studied her face. "Why? Do you not like it?"

"The eyes aren't my favorite," she admitted. "I like the hair, though."

He screwed up his face. When he opened his eyes, they were a deep chocolate brown, and before she could stop herself, she let out an admiring sigh. "I take it you like this, then?" he teased.

"Yes," she said, feeling her face get hot and wishing that she could kick herself. "I do." If she was going to be blushing, she wanted him to be, too. "It's my favorite on you."

If she hadn't been sitting across the table from him and paying close attention to his face, she definitely would not have caught the slight widening of his eyes this time. It occurred to her – and not for the first time – that he really would be an excellent spy. He always seemed to have such amazing control over his expressions. He pushed his chair back abruptly. "Let me go and get you a drink," he said. "Anything in particular you want?"

"Surprise me." She watched him walk up to the bar. Given the poor lighting of the Leaky Cauldron, it was hard to be sure, but she thought that the back of his neck looked red.

Of course, it was just as likely to be wishful thinking on her part. He could usually keep his face from getting red when he was under pressure or embarrassed, but for some reason, the back of his neck usually got red instead. Victoire did not understand it, any more than she understood why her cousin's Rose's ears always seemed to turn red when she was angry, but she would have loved to think that he felt under pressure right now.

She looked around the room. The Leaky Cauldron was a very different place in the evening than it was during the day. Most of the shops were closed, so there were far fewer people going through, and none of them seemed to be children. The place itself was not what Victoire would call crowded, exactly, but it certainly seemed to be fairly popular.

She wondered how often Teddy came here to drink.

She also wondered how that night was going to end, and she felt a pleasant shiver of anticipation slide up her spine.

"Try this." Teddy slid a shot glass in front of her, and she jumped. "You're a little twitchy tonight," he commented.

She shook her head to clear it. "Sorry, Teddy. I was just…"

"Thinking?" he finished for her. She nodded, and he grinned. "Has anyone ever told you that you think to much?"

"Fred. Frequently." That made him laugh. Victoire liked Teddy's laugh. She had always liked Teddy's laugh. It was full and relaxing and infectious all at once. She picked the glass up. "What is it?"

"Pear cider. It's one of my favorites." She took a sip, and he raised his eyebrows in question.

She took another sip. "Yes, please." She handed him the glass.

He grinned again and went back to the bar.

She liked his smile, too. It was just like his laugh. It had occurred to her as she made her way over to the Leaky Cauldron that evening that on the basis of his smile and laugh alone, it would be easy to fall in love with him.

She was very glad that no one had been around to observe that thought. She was aware that it was terribly sappy.

He set a full glass in front of her and returned to his seat. "Happy second drink at the Leaky Cauldron," he said, raising his glass. She tipped hers to it before taking a drink. She wasn't sure if it was the company or the drink that was giving her such a warm sensation in her chest, but either way, she liked it.

"So," Teddy said, leaning forward. His blue hair fell into his face, and he brushed it back. "You've definitely been told that you think too much. Has anyone ever told you that it's really very attractive?"

She forced herself to swallow the cider in her mouth. It was only with a concentrated effort that she pulled it off. She did not fancy the idea of choking because he'd asked her a question that she hoped would lead to exactly what she wanted.

"Since it's usually my cousin who tells me that I think too much, no, I don't think so," she said. She had meant to keep her voice calm, but she could hear the waver in it.

"That's good. That means I'll be the first." He caught her gaze and held it. She was not sure she could have looked away if she tried. They were really such a perfect shade of brown. "You think too much. And it is very, very attractive."

Victoire was seized with the sudden desire to reach across the table, sink her fingers into his hair, and kiss him until he felt as disoriented as she did.

But that would knock over their drinks, and she really was enjoying the cider very much.

"So are your eyes," she said, and immediately wanted to kick herself. What a stupid, stupid thing to say. Honestly, what was she, a fourth year?

His eyes twinkled. "Glad to hear it." He lifted his glass again, but before he drank, he said, "You know, even when you think you sound lame, the people being complimented are usually pretty happy with it." When he lowered his glass, he smiled at her again. She really did love his smile, and she was glad that he used it so often. "Personally, a beautiful girl telling me that she finds my eyes attractive puts a bright spot in my day."

"Am I beautiful?" she asked before she could stop herself. She had never really thought of herself as such. That wasn't to say that she thought she was ugly, or even plain – she didn't. She had always thought of herself as fairly attractive. Beautiful just seemed like such a _strong_ word.

He looked surprised, but he didn't seem to think that she was digging for compliments – which she was quite grateful for, because she definitely wasn't. "I've always thought so," he said, shrugging. "Well, not _always—"_ He paused. "You know what I mean."

Victoire did not especially want to embarrass him, but she was not actually sure what he meant, and she was very curious about it. "I don't, actually."

Teddy took a very generous sip from his glass, and she took a smaller sip from hers. "Will you think I'm horribly creepy if I say since about halfway through your fourth year?" he asked, looking rather uncomfortable.

She considered that. She wasn't exactly surprised, since Fred had basically said that he suspected it, and Fred was usually right about these things. And in truth, she wasn't especially creeped out, either. There really _wasn't_ that big an age difference between them, and she didn't understand why he would be so bothered by it.

"No," she said. "I'm not sure why you think it's so creepy, actually."

He wrinkled his nose and drained the rest of his glass. "I'm going to go get another drink."

She watched him as he returned to the bar, ordered another drink, and lay some gold on the counter. It really was a puzzle, especially considering that both of them had been born to parents with a fairly significant age difference between them.

When he returned, she raised her eyebrows at him. "I'm waiting."

He sighed and took another large sip. "Well, for one thing, I was always horribly offended when my yearmates made comments about you, which makes me a bit of a hypocrite."

"You mean someone besides Adam Kennet said something?" she asked.

Teddy snorted. "Fred told you about that one, huh?"

"When we were waiting for you the other day."

He looked up at the ceiling. "Yes," he said after a minute. "You are beautiful, smart, and funny. Of course someone besides Adam said something."

Victoire was rather surprised by that. It wasn't as though she had never been asked out, because she had, and she'd certainly had a couple boyfriends, but she'd never had the sense that she was especially popular. "I didn't know that," she said after a moment.

Teddy smiled ruefully. "My friends might have ended up with the impression that I'd be very unhappy with them if they started going out with you." At this point, even he couldn't stop his cheeks from getting a little red. "Sorry."

She shrugged. "I don't especially care," she said. "I'm quite happy with where I am right now."

He studied her. "What, single?" he asked, the grin back on his face and the blush fading as though it had never existed at all.

"I thought I was on a date right now," she said, suddenly tired of the game. "Am I not?"

Teddy laid his over hers very tentatively, as though he were afraid she might snatch it away. "V, if you want this to be a date, I am ecstatic to call it one."

"What, was that not what you intended?" she asked, starting to feel a little annoyed.

He considered that for a moment. "That was certainly what I hoped." He paused at the sound of movement. They both looked around, and Victoire saw that her friends in the booth had gotten up to leave. When the group started to move toward the door, several of them winked at Victoire or gave her a not-so-subtle thumbs up. She glanced at Teddy, and was glad to see that he looked amused.

"About time," Micah called before closing the door behind him. "She's been pining after you, you know."

Victoire groaned and covered her face with her free hand. "Thanks, Micah," she muttered.

When she looked up, Teddy had his head cocked to the side. "You've been pining after me, have you?" he asked. She could tell that he was hiding a smile.

"Only a bit." He looked skeptical, and she groaned. "Okay, fine, more than a bit, but you can't talk."

He laughed, and she closed her eyes. She would be perfectly happy to spend hours listening to him laugh. She did not ever intend to admit that to anyone. "No, I suppose I can't," he agreed. He glanced at her nearly-empty glass. "Are you about finished?"

She picked it up and swallowed the rest of it. He did the same. "Yes," she said. "Where do you want to go now?"

He considered that. "Let's go for a walk," he suggested. "There's a nice park on the other side of Diagon Alley."

Victoire thought about that. She had been hoping that he would suggest going back to his flat. It had a beautiful view of the city, and at this point, she really wanted to be alone with him.

Teddy made a face. "You want to go back to my flat, don't you," he said. It was not really a question, but she answered it anyway.

"Yes."

"Haven't you ever heard that patience is a virtue?" he asked.

"Of course." She pushed her hair behind her ears, and actually saw him swallow. Fred had definitely been right. She made a mental note to thank him later. "It's just not one of mine."

He pushed his chair back and got up. "Well, it's good for you," he said, holding out his hand. She took it and allowed him to pull her up out of her seat. "And it _is_ one of my virtues," he added as they made their way toward the door.

She opened it, and he tapped a different brick than the one that would let into Diagon Alley. The archway swelled, and they stepped through it.

She looked around. There were trees surrounding the edges of the park, and a pond in the middle. She had never seen this place before. She hadn't even known it existed. He held out his hand, and she took it. They began to make their way to the edge of the water. "This is beautiful," she breathed. There were just enough of the balls of light hovering above them to see, but not enough to obscure the stars. She had no idea where this was, but did not see how it could be in the center of London.

But then, that was what magic was for, wasn't it?

She waited for him to say something else, or to make another move, but Teddy seemed perfectly happy to just be walking with her. "Why are you being so…" she searched for the word, and came up blank, but he seemed to know what she was talking about.

"That's just how I am," he said, shrugging. "And I still feel a little weird about this."

"So you don't want to bother?" she demanded, and he laughed.

"Not what I said, V." He stopped her. "You know, you're a very prickly person sometimes."

She sighed. That was something that she got told a lot. "Sorry."

He shook his head. "I like it." Victoire had a very hard time believing that anyone liked her temper, but chose not to argue with him. He brushed some of her hair back from her face. "I like it a lot." For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her, but he turned away and continued to walk down the path. When she glanced up at him, he was smiling. "Patience is a virtue," he said playfully, but when he turned to look up at the stars in the sky, she saw that back of his neck was bright red.

That made her feel better. "Are you going to kiss me tonight?" she asked. She was a little surprised at what a difference knowing that she wasn't just a pathetic schoolgirl with an unreturned crush made for her confidence.

Or maybe it was the alcohol. What was it that Chloe had always called it? Liquid courage?

It was probably most likely that it was both.

She could actually see him swallow. "I'm not sure."

"Would it make you feel any better if I kissed you first?"

He thought about that for a moment. As they neared the pond, she could see his smile. "Yes."

They stopped by the water's edge. Staring out over it, she wondered how it was that she had never even heard of this place. It was lovely.

She let go of his hand and turned to him. "I like your smile," she said.

Teddy blinked. "Thank you," he said, looking a little taken aback. "I was not expecting you to say that."

Victoire leaned up and brushed her lips against his. When she pulled back, he looked as though someone had hit him over the head with something exceedingly heavy.

"I should have been expecting that," he said after a moment. "But somehow it still surprised me." She was wondering if she would have to initiate the next kiss to when he lifted a hand to her cheek. "Next question," he said softly. "Am I creepy if I tell you I love you?"

At this point, Victoire rather wanted to kick him. Words could be said in letters. "So kiss me," she suggested.

He lowered his head and took her advice.

Any lingering doubts that he really did have feelings for her immediately disappeared. So did the small part of her that had worried that she wouldn't like kissing him. Right now, she would have been happy if they never stopped.


End file.
